Method and apparatus for viewing electronic commerce-related documents

Abstract

The present invention includes a method of providing users with formatted access to XML and similar documents received from trading partners using a general purpose viewer or browser. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.

We claim as follows: 
     
       1. A method of making tagged documents viewable including:
 receiving a document having a plurality of tagged fields that contain transaction data; 
 storing the document in machine readable memory and creating an index for retrieval of the document; 
 notifying a user of receipt of the document; 
 responding to a request by the user to view the document by applying rules for selecting one of a plurality of style sheets based on content of one or more of the tagged fields of the document that contain transaction data, applying the selected style sheet to the document to generate a result, and outputting the result for display. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the tagged fields include a document type and the document type is used for selecting. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the tagged fields include a document type and an identification of an organization originating the document; and 
 the document type and the identification of an organization originating the document are used for selecting. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the tagged fields include a document type, identification of an organization originating the document, and an identification of an addressee; and 
 the document type, the identification of the organization originating the document, and the identification of the addressee are used for selecting. 
 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 a schema exists associated with the tagged fields; and 
 an identity of the schema is used for selecting. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the tagged fields have types that conform to a schema, at least one of the tagged fields has a particular type that is not used in the style sheet, and applying the selected style sheet further includes accessing the schema to determine a supertype of the particular type and using the supertype to format the tagged fields. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein notifying includes posting a message at a location accessed by the user. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the tagged fields deliver content independent of display format. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user is using a browser and the request is for a browser-compatible view of the document. 
     
     
       10. A method of making tagged documents available for viewing by a user, including:
 receiving a document having a plurality of tagged fields; 
 storing the document to machine readable memory and creating an index for retrieval of the document; 
 notifying a user of receipt of the document; and 
 responding to a request by the user to view the document by applying a style sheet to the document to generate a result, and outputting the result for display; 
 wherein the tagged fields have types that conform to a schema, one or more of the tagged fields has a particular type that is not used in the selected style sheet, and applying the selected style sheet further includes accessing the schema to determine a supertype of the particular type. 
 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 10 , wherein responding further includes selecting one of a plurality of style sheets based on content of one or more of the tagged fields of the document. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 11 , wherein:
 the tagged fields include a document type and an identification of an electronic commerce marketplace where the document originated; and 
 the document type and the identification of the electronic commerce marketplace where the document originated are used for selecting.